Stream

Media, Culture and Technology - MECTA23437

Stream Summary

Faculty: ARTSC - Faculty of Arts&Social Science

School: School of the Arts and Media

Contact: School of the Arts and Media

Program: 3437 - Arts and Business

Award(s):

Bachelor of Arts and Business (Minor)

View stream information for previous years

Stream Outline

This stream structure is for students commencing prior to 2016.

Students commencing from 2016 should refer to the relevant stream version for their program. Please click here for a complete list of programs in which Media, Culture and Technology can be studied.


The aim of this minor stream is to provide students with a progressive understanding of the social, cultural and phenomenological impacts of media and communication technologies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The minor stream starts with an accessible introduction to ways of thinking about the emergence and consequences of two technologies that most students take for granted: television and telephony. Students then progress through a number of pathways and perspectives that move towards the present reality of 'intermedia'; that is, complex global media, information and communication systems and networks that people access through a variety of increasingly digital technologies.

In short, the focus of Media, Culture and Technology minor stream is on media in a period of transition. In terms of learning skills, the minor stream develops conceptual frameworks and modes of analysis through which students can understand and explain not only changes in the media, but also reasons for those changes and their social and affective consequences.

Aims of the Minor Stream
The subject-specific aims of the BA minor stream in Media, Culture and Technology are:
• Student outcomes at the end of Level 1:
• students will have competencies in key concepts in media theory
• the ability to critically analyse the social and cultural dynamics of media technologies and their impacts on everyday life and experience
• skills in basic research and analytical writing
• the ability to reflect on their own media practices and the ways in which their understandings of self and world are formed in relation to media.

Student outcomes by the end of Level 2:
• students will have an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of media studies
• an ability to reflect on the relationship between media and cultural organizations and political, technological and economic processes
• an understanding of the networked nature of media and the balance between local and global media
• the ability to analyse different systems of representation and aesthetic practices and the role of diverse audiences and users in this process
• skills in reading and using media theory and researching media.

Student outcomes by the end of Level 3:
• students will be able to understand the dynamics of intermedia and emerging media forms as they are played out in relation to questions of aesthetics, politics, technology, transnational media and performance
• they will also have well-developed skills in analytical and critical thinking, independent and in-depth research methods and an appreciation of the pivotal role of media in contemporary social organization.
• be able to research and explore key areas of the media industries they are focussing upon.

Stream Structure

A student who wishes to gain a minor stream in Media, Culture and Technology must complete 36 units of credit including 12 uoc at Level 1, at least 12 uoc at Level 2 and at least 12 uoc at Level 3.

Level 1

Plus one of the following:

Level 2

Media, Culture and Technology Courses:
The following courses from other subject areas can also be counted towards the Media, Culture and Technology minor stream:

Level 3

Media, Culture and Technology Courses:
The following courses from other subject areas can also be counted towards the Media, Culture and Technology minor stream:
Scientia stairs

Study Levels

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